Featured Speakers

Michele Burke is an Assistant Editor at Alfred A. Knopf & Crown Books for Young Readers, Random House. She began as an editorial assistant there in 2002, immediately after college. She continues to back up two senior-level editors, Michelle Frey and Nancy Siscoe, with their lists, and is now beginning to develop a list of her own. Some of the titles she's edited are: Pure Dead Trouble by Debi Gliori (August 2005), Rodeo Ron and His Milkshake Cows by Rowan Clifford (May 2005), Space Dogs by Justin Ball and Evan Croker (Spring 2006), Matilda’s Humdinger by Lynn Downey, illustrated by Tim Bowers (Summer 2006), and Knights of The Hill Country by Tim Tharp (Fall 2006).  

Laura Backes has been part of the children's book publishing field since 1986. She's worked at some of New York's top publishing houses in publicity (Ballantine Books) and subsidiary rights (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), as a literary agent (Goodman Associates and later with The Backes Agency), and as a freelance editor for small presses and self-published authors. Since 1990 Laura has helped educate countless aspiring authors on the craft of writing for children as publisher of Children's Book Insider: The Newsletter for Children's Writers (see www.write4kids.com for more information), as well as through her critique service and books on writing. In October 2000, Laura formed Children's Authors' Bootcamp, an intensive two-day workshop on writing fiction for children, which she teaches throughout the country with author Linda Arms White (see www.WeMakeWriters.com for more information). Laura is also the author of Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read from Prima Publishing/Random House, has had articles on writing published in Writer's Digest and The Writer magazines, and was the technical editor of the recently-published Writing Children's Books for Dummies from Wiley Publishing.

Danlyn Iantorno is a full-time freelance artist and owner of Painted Olive Studios. During her 25-year career she has worked with all phases of print production including typography, layout and design, illustration and photography in addition to screenprint and embroidery design. Danlyn is a graduate of the Art Institute of Colorado and enjoys her artist husband and four children.

Cheryl Klein is an Associate Editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, where she works closely with a wide range of American and international authors and illustrators, including Lisa Yee, Saxton Freymann, David Small, Laura Gallego García, and Kate Constable. Cheryl is also known as AALB’s imprint baker and queen of editorial doggerel. She grew up in Peculiar, Mo. , graduated from Carleton College and the Denver Publishing Institute in 2000, and joined AALB/Scholastic that same year. As an editor, she particularly enjoys “relationship stories” where two people make an emotional connection—as friends, enemies, family, romantic interests, etc.—and the possibilities and consequences that grow out of that connection; but she loves books from all genres, and her main editorial interest is good writing. Some of the titles she's edited are: Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time by Lisa Yee; The Singer of All Songs and The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable; Food for Thought: The Complete Book of Concepts for Growing Minds by Saxton Freymann; Don’t Let the Peas Touch! by Deborah Blumenthal, illus. by Timothy Basil Ering; The Red Bird by Astrid Lindgren, illus. by Marit Törnqvist, trans. by Patricia Crampton; and The Legend of the Wandering King by Laura Gallego García, trans. by Dan Bellm.

Yolanda LeRoy is the Editorial Director at Charlesbridge (www.charlesbridge.com), an independent publisher of children's books since 1989. She currently works with Linda Sue Park, Eve Bunting, Kathy Lasky, Tony Johnston, Caroline Arnold, Iza Trapani, and Jerry Pallotta, among others. She began her career in publishing at Charlesbridge and has also worked as an editor at Candlewick Press. She is a former executive board member of the Foundation for Children's Books, a Boston-based non-profit organization for children's literacy, and is the founder of the Boston Children's Publishing Group, a social and networking organization for children's publishing professionals. Yolanda studied Russian language and literature at Harvard College, and she enjoys performing as a singer and actress in the Boston area. Some of the titles she's edited are Yum! Yuck! by Linda Sue Park and Julia Durango; illustrated by Sue Ramá; Ace Lacewing Bug Detective, by David Biedrzycki; Mosquito Bite, by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel; Dory Story, by Jerry Pallotta; illustrated by David Biedrzycki and The Harmonica, by Tony Johnston; illustrated by Ron Mazellan.

Claudia Mills is the author of over 35 children's books, including picture books (Ziggy's Blue Ribbon Day), easy readers (the Gus And Grandpa series), chapter books (7 X 9 = Trouble!), and middle-grade novels (Makeovers By Marcia, Lizzie At Last). Both Gus And Grandpa At Basketball and 7 X 9 = Trouble! were named ALA Notable Books of the Year; 7 x 9 also won the Virginia Young Readers Award and the KC3 ( Kansas City) book award. Claudia is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the mother of two teen-aged boys.

Wendell Minor is an illustrator whose cover illustrations have enhanced over 2000 works, among them, the cover of David McCullough’s current best seller, 1776, as well as McCullough’s John Adams and Truman, Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides, Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Julie's Wolf Pack by Jean Craighead George, Alaska by James Michener and Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry. He has illustrated 33 picture books for children, most recently Reaching For the Moon by Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Christmas Tree!, his first collaboration with his wife Florence Minor. Wendell has authored several picture books as well. Wendell’s paintings are included in the permanent collections of many museums, among them the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Private collectors include Buzz Aldrin, David McCullough, Jean Craighead George, Pat Conroy, Mary Higgins Clark, and Stone Phillips. He currently lectures at schools and universities across the country, frequently on environmental themes. David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 1776, John Adams, and Truman says: "Wendell Minor is an exceptionally gifted, almost unimaginably prolific American artist. In the world of publishing there is no one quite like him. Indeed, his value to the whole world of books, to publishers, editors, authors, and to millions of readers who care about books, can hardly be overstated.” Wendell and Florence live and work in Washington, Connecticut. You can visit them at: www.minorart.com

Donna Jo Napoli is a mother first (5 children), then a mix of writer (nearly 50 books), linguistics professor (three degrees from Harvard), dancer, baker, and gardener. She publishes for preschool through older YA, including two series of chapter books. Her books have won state and national awards. Many are historical fantasies that fill in the gaps in fairy tales, myths, and religious stories. The books range from gothic to humorous, from ancient times to contemporary. The settings vary from China to Australia to Iran to Israel to Europe (many in Italy; she is a dual citizen of USA and Italy) to America , and she has taught and/or done research in all these places. Several of her books revel in natural history (in her next life she's a natural historian). Please visit her website: www.donnajonapoli.com.

Lori Kiplinger Pandy is a relative newcomer to the field of children’s book illustration. She spent the first 20 years of her career painting and sculpting for the interior design industry and fine art galleries. She first began attending RMC-SCBWI in 1998 where she won the Best Book Dummy award. Since then she’s been published by Humpty Dumpty's Magazine, Rourke Publishing, SRA-McGraw-Hill and painted over 20 cover illustrations for McGraw-Hill, School Specialty Children's Publishing, and Frank Schaffer. Lori has enjoyed working with self-publishing authors as well, designing and illustrating 6 children’s books and 3 adult book covers for the independent publishing industry. A graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design, Lori's work can be seen at www.kiplingerpandy.com.

Denise Vega is Co-Regional Advisor of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI. Her first children's novel, Click Here (to find out how I survived seventh grade), was acquired in a two-book deal in 2003 and was released in Spring 2005. The second novel is tentatively scheduled for 2006 publication. She has two multi-cultural toddler books coming out with Scholastic/Cartwheel and won the 2001 Lee & Low New Voices Honor Award for a multicultural picture book manuscript. Her picture book manuscript, Grandmother, Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? was acquired by Little, Brown in 2004 and she's had numerous stories, articles, poems and activities in magazines. Denise lives with her husband and three children in Denver and is currently working on her third novel. Visit her at www.denisevega.com.